A new medical school goes big

Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine
Branding, communications portfolio, strategic rollout

Female doctor: The docotr you want to be and more.

The Challenge

Kaiser Permanente is America’s largest integrated healthcare system, and they had a bold plan: build a new, freestanding medical school from the ground up. We kicked off work in January 2019 while much of the curriculum was still a work in progress. Our charge: create a portfolio of communications and a strategic rollout plan that would help recruit a demographically and geographically diverse inaugural class for June 2020.

The Impact

Our brand messaging and tagline—“The doctor you want to be. And more.”—asserted the school’s commitment to training physicians who would become champions not only for their individual patients, but also for entire communities. The inaugural class yielded the highest ratio of applicants to positions of any medical school in the country. More than half of the applicants came from outside of California, where the school is located. Of the 50-member class, 36% are from racial or ethnic backgrounds that are underrepresented in medicine, and 34% are from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds—one of the highest percentages of these students among U.S. medical schools.

Project components

  • Creative concept
  • Advertising—print, audio, digital
  • Paid media—digital, social, search
  • Media buying
  • Social media strategy
  • SEO management
  • Video
  • Microsite
  • Original photography
  • Brochures—viewbook, travel piece
  • Messaging platform
  • Concept testing
  • Marketing rollout plan
Child being examined by 2 doctors in doc office with father looking on


A new medical school for the kind of doctor you always wanted to be. And for the kind of doctor America needs more than ever. This is medical school created by the people who have helped define innovation and community commitment in health care—and who are ranked first in more categories of care effectiveness than anyone else. A medical school focused on health, not just disease. We believe the Kaiser Permanente model of care is what America needs today and in years to come.

microsite shown on laptop: How You'll Become a Catalyst for Change
Microsite page 2
Microsite page 1
Microsite pages shown in 3 phones
Microsite page shown on iPad
viewbook cover – KPSOM graphic and photo of doctor
Viewbook spread with bright photos of Pasadena: Learn in a microcosm of America.
Viewbook spread: mindfully designed environment for learning
photo of 2 docs reviewing x-rays with male patient and his partner
Travel brochure cover: The doctor you want to be. And more.
NYTimes print ad: Announcement